XCode 4210

The newly launched XCode 4210 by ViXS incorporates a dual HD 1080p30 decoder that supports picture in picture and the latest H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) decoding standard for content transition to 1080p60/50 broadcasting and an additional media processing engine for flexible decoding of multiple Internet formats.

The XCode 4210 has the ability to transcrypt and transcode any multimedia content to any multimedia and container formats allowing seamless streaming, downloading and sideloading to a multitude of connected consumer entertainment devices, such as set-top box, PC/laptop, TV, game console, DLNA client, wireless tablet, consumer electronics, and wired or wireless portable or smart phone.

The XCode 4210 delivers user performance in excess of 3,200 DMIPS distributed over a main MIPS 74k applications processor and two ARC 750D offload processors, all simultaneously running their own real time operating systems. This level of performance has set a new benchmark in application and communications processing with the highest sustained networked data throughput over 400 Mbit/s in a single chipset.

See the press release.

Interactive television advertising overview

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of “An Interactive Television Advertising Overview”, the latest in its series of Platform Status Reports aimed at educating marketers, agencies and publishers on the state of interactive advertising platforms.

The report provides:

• An overview of the U.S. interactive television market, including audience segments and specific advertising options for reaching those consumers
• Key definitions and nomenclature used in interactive television and specific campaign metrics
• Case studies that highlight the available interactive television advertising products
• An overview of the different providers of interactive television advertising and their respective capabilities
• An explanation of key technological and strategic challenges facing interactive television

See the press release and download the report here.

SeaWell Networks

SeaWell Networks Inc. is a provider of Internet video delivery products designed for use by content producers and their content delivery partner organizations. SeaWell leverages video compression standard, H.264 scalable video coding (SVC), to uniquely create and deliver a high-quality viewing experience online while significantly reducing the cost of delivery.

“SeaWell’s technology is a game-changing innovation that allows video providers to create Internet-ready video content and deliver it to any screen or device in HD quality full-screen resolution or in lower resolutions for low bandwidth mobile devices,” said Northwater Vice President and current SeaWell director, Andrew Harrison. “SeaWell will create a superior experience for the viewer on a platform that is more flexible and infinitely more scalable.”

For more information see www.seawellnetworks.com.

Full SVC with interoperability in 2010

Polycom announced that it will deliver the industry's first "Full Scalable Video Coding" (Full SVC) solution in 2010, which will further address reduced bandwidth requirements, error concealment during packet loss, enhanced scalability for multipoint calling and universality - or interoperability across a broad set of video protocols.

According to Polycom, today's limited SVC solutions attempt to address these issues, but lack standards-based signaling, which precludes interoperability with any other SVC-based systems, and, more importantly, lack interoperability with all standards-based telepresence systems, desktop video collaboration applications and legacy video conferencing endpoints.

Polycom intends to deliver the first Full SVC solution that addresses all of these issues and provides unmatched interoperability. With Full SVC deployed across video endpoints and infrastructure, Polycom will extend the benefits of SVC universally, allowing modern video systems from across multiple standards to fully interoperate with SVC systems, legacy systems, H.264 systems, Microsoft RTV systems, etc.

See the full press release.

HDMI 1.4a

The latest HDMI specification adds key enhancements to support the market requirements for bringing broadcast 3D content into the home, i.e. the addition of two mandatory formats for broadcast content: Side-by-Side Horizontal and Top-and-Bottom. With this addition, the HDMI Specification Version 1.4a provides a level of interoperability for devices designed to deliver 3D content over the HDMI connection.

The 3D Mandatory Formats are:

• For movie content:
  • Frame Packing
    • 1080p @ 23.98/24Hz
• For game content:
  • Frame Packing
    • 720p @ 50 or 59.94/60Hz
• For broadcast content:
  • Side-by-Side Horizontal
    
    • 1080i @ 50 or 59.94/60Hz
  • Top-and-Bottom
    • 720p @ 50 or 59.94/60Hz
    • 1080p @ 23.97/24Hz

See the press release.

Multimedia Grand Challenge 2010

Submissions for the ACM Multimedia Grand Challenge 2010 must significantly address one of the industry challenges posted on the Grand Challenge web site and depict working, presentable systems or demos.

The top submissions will be presented in a special event during the ACM Multimedia 2010 conference in Florence, Italy. Based on the presentation, winners will be selected for Grand Challenge awards.

2010 challenges are the following:

• Google challenge: Robust, As-Accurate-As-Human Genre Classification for Video
• Google challenge: Indexing and Fast Interactive Searching in Personal Diaries
• Radvision challenge: Video Conferencing To Surpass “In-Person” Meeting Experience
• Radvision challenge: Real-time Data Collaboration Adaptation for Multi-Device Video Conferencing
• HP challenge: High Impact Visual Communication
• Nokia challenge: Where was this Photo Taken, and How?
• Yahoo! challenge: Novel Image Understanding
• Yahoo! challenge: Robust Automatic Segmentation of Video According to Narrative Themes

WIAMIS 2010

The preliminary program of the 11th International Workshop on Image Analysis for Multimedia Interactive Services (WIAMIS 2010) is now available here and the Advanced System Technology labs of STMicroelectronics had 4 papers accepted for presentation:

• "Constant quality variable bit-rate control for SVC" by Tea Anselmo and Daniele Alfonso.
• "Error Concealment of Intra Coded Video Frames" by Riccardo Bernardini, Luca Celetto, Gianluca Gennari, Matteo Petrani and Roberto Rinaldo.
• "H.264/AVC Stereo Video Compression Benchmarking" by Subarna Tripathi, Emiliano Piccinelli and Davide Aliprandi.
• "Segment-Based Depth Maps Extraction from Stereo Video Content" by Alberto La Martina, Davide Aliprandi and Emiliano Piccinelli

See you in Desenzano del Garda, Italy.